Judge approves sale of Adelphia assets to Time Warner and Comcast

In a note of finality to the Adelphia corporate scandal that sent company founder John Rigas and his son to prison, a bankruptcy judge today decided to unravel the assets of Adelphia from the company's bankruptcy proceedings and sell them to cable competitors Time Warner and Comcast. Once the sale is completed, it's hard to imagine any other company challenging either Time Warner or Comcast as the two largest cable operations nationwide.

This decision ought to be good for companies that could have received next to nothing during Adelphia's bankruptcy process thus far. This also gives debtors a significant control stance, and also relieves pending creditor issues with Adelphia as the company struggles to get through its bankruptcy proceedings and, well, try to start fresh most likely. After its cable-related assets are sold, what will be left for Adelpia?

What does this mean for TWX shareholders? For one, significant gains in operating infrastructure should prove incredibly useful in the near future as video, voice, data and, well, everything, combines into a single broadband pipe and the companies -- Time Warner among them -- that can feed the insatiable customer need for "all-in-one" service offerings will be in prime position to rake it all in. Dollars, that is.